A blog of art writing about painting, centred in Toronto and environs but covering elsewhere, too.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Progressive Conservative: the 2018 Finalists for the RBC Canadian Painting Competition

The finalists for the 2018
RBC Canadian Painting Competition are out, and the list is progressive and
conservative simultaneously. That pairing is not inappropriately oxymoronical
like the moniker of Ontario's reigning party that shares those same words. The list is progressive since of
the jury's fifteen picks, twelve are women. It is equally conservative in that
almost all the work is formalist with an emphasis on the nationally ruling but
elsewhere waning trend of figuration. Much work is academic and derivative.
Several artists stand out though, notably Ally MacIntyre, who presents jarring
images such as Pink Moon, 2016, which quickly and adroitly moves
from eighties throwback kitsch, with its neon pinks and cliché palm trees, to a delicate, brooding portrait.